


Who Killed Harmony Grace?

by RulerOfCats



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family, Friendship, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23942197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RulerOfCats/pseuds/RulerOfCats
Summary: Harmony is not only the self-proclaimed queen of New York, but she also is a dignified trouble maker. She rose to fame as a child star, falling from that grace as the child sweetheart of America and into someone who needs serious help to stay sober and out of the tabloids. This was just one of those days that would never end, living aimlessly and with little hope since she will inevitably die. His eyes were so old when he introduced himself to her and she couldn't resist the temptation of the escape and secrets he offered. She had none, all her secrets on display for the world to see since she was five. He opened her life to one on the run, all starting with a mysterious death loop.Who wants to kill Harmony Grace?She doesn't want to find out.
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/Original Character(s), Eleventh Doctor/Original Female Character(s), Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Original Character(s), Tenth Doctor/Original Female Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Original Female Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. WHO KILLED HARMONY GRACE?

Who Killed Harmony Grace?

INDEX:

1\. Man In The Blue Box

2\. The Castle on the Crystal Moon

3\. The Little Girl and the Golden Tiara

4\. Lost In Space

5\. Monsters at Midnight

6\. The Face of Boe

7\. The Tollund Horror

8\. Cold Steel

9\. Rise of the Sentinel

10\. Invitation to a Murder

11\. Thrice a Three

12\. Flight of the Artemis

13\. Robots on Atlantis

14\. Tale as Old as Time

15\. The Haunting of Eleanor Moore

16\. Scooby Doo and the Tardis

17\. Da Vinci and the Weeping Lady

18\. Midnight With Chanel

19\. The Red Horror

20\. The Girl Who Lives

21\. The Man Who Lies

* * *


	2. 1. Man in the Blue Box

PART ONE

10TH DOCTOR

_"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."_

**John Wooden**

****

HARMONY GRACE ALWAYS felt thather name was boring. Perhaps that was why she changed it when she rose to fame in the nineties. Perhaps that was when she ceased being who she was and became the legend that dominated the industry. She rose to fame on Christmas specials that became popular memes of the future, known for her wittiness and sweet smile that never failed to make her manager laugh. Ironically, she had long since fallen from this grace when she shed her good girl Christmas classic image.

Now, deep in another shot, she heard the birthday boy giving his toast on the stage, thanking everybody for coming. He caught her eye in the middle, sending her a disapproving frown when he saw her ordering yet another drink. She swirled her maraschino cherry with her long manicured nail before she picked it up and popped it in her mouth with a condescending smirk towards Kevin Lockhart who promptly ignored his ex-girlfriend who he knew would inevitably stir trouble. Unfortunately, no party was complete without Harmony Grace these days.

In the meantime, the girl's vision was blurry, and she glanced around the room for someone to go home with, but she couldn't keep her balance. It was a wonder they hadn't cut her off yet, not that it would help since she came prepared with a flask in her handbag. At that thought, Harmony promptly noticed that her handbag was missing. She usually wore satchels to parties, but since she just came back from the VMAs, a shoulder bag was a definite flat no when paired with her dress.

"Haven't you had enough," Kelsie Finkle, the richy prissy daughter of Imperio Hotel owner Dick Finkle, asked and nearly knocked her over. She was beautiful, in the obvious sort of way, especially since her daddy bought her a new nose and matching tits to pair. She was just as much a dick as her father. Then again, the vendetta only began when Harmony fucked her fiancée in the Imperio pent house. It must not have been too amazing since Harmony couldn't so much as remember making it to the elevator, let alone the hotel room. She had no such excuse for the next nine times she fucked him.

"Baby, I'm just getting started," Harmony sneered, shoving past her towards the bathrooms where she must have left her bag. The bodies were suffocating, but it made her feel rather alive. This helped in the worst of times, and besides, it didn't actually matter how she acted. The press were always out for blood, sprouting nonsense like her walks of shame even when she was only going to the grocery store.

She made it to the bathroom, glancing around the counters and seeing no sign of her clutch anywhere around on the marble. Her heels clicked against the tiles, and she glanced down at her thigh highs, praying that she may have stuck her phone in her boot. There was no such luck, and she ran her hand through her soft curls, unraveling them and showing a sign of her stress if someone got their hands on her cell. She hardly cared about missed calls, but she did, however, care that she had some discriminating pictures and videos that was certain to raise a couple eyebrows.

She could see the headlines now, "HARMONY'S NIGHT OF DEBAUCHERY—INSIGHT INTO A STAR'S SEX TAPE."

She's done a lot of shit, but she never released a sex tape and hardly wanted her first one with a backup dancer. She didn't even know why she still had the video.

She opened each stall, noting that people needed to drink more water or at least flush. She caught sight of her reflection in the glass's glare, but saw something just as creepy. It was a man in a Halloween mask. He was just staring at her through the window. She felt a slight amount of fear flicker through her, and she quickly turned behind her, her heart beating out of her chest. There was no one there, making her realize that he had either been a side effect of the blunt she smoked in the car or he had been outside, staring at her. She quickly decided not to be the dumb bitch who dies in the bathroom, so she rushed out. Her heels made this difficult, but the moment she stepped out in the party lights, the fear flickered away and died.

She caught sight of Kevin Lockhart, chatting up a group of people she used to know. Kevin, however, got those friends in the divorce. Harmony grinned, wrapping her arm around his waist as if she were a doting wife and not the woman who shattered all his favorite records after she caught him cheating on her.

"'mony," Bruno greeted, and she smiled, showing there was no hard feelings for their lack of communication in the last couple months. "Looking fine, girl."

"How many have you had?" Kevin asked, moving her arm from around his waist only to notice that she was unsteady. "Okay, someone's gotta take this girl home."

"Bro, I just got here," Bruno complained when eyes shot to him. Kevin and Harmony, despite the short-lived marriage (lasting an entire three weeks), and the cheating scandal, had no press statements clapping at one another. This was out of character considering Harmony was a tabloid whore.

Still, having to drive her home on his birthday was out of the question. "Guys, I always make it home safe."

"Yeah, where's the rest of your dress?" Yumi asked, signifying that in fact, Harmony's dress was in shambles from the amount of dancing she did in the beginning. It also didn't help that she tore much of the layers off in the limo after her eighth shot.

Vera Wang would likely shred her face at how Harmony wore her masterpiece.

"Fair point," Harmony reluctantly agreed in a giggle. "But it's a party, drinks are on him." She patted Kevin's shoulder and gave him a smoldering kiss on his neck. "Is that the cologne I bought you? Reminds me of Paris." He met her whisper in his ear with his unamused frown as she gave Bruno and Yumi a kiss on their cheeks and smiled. "I think I owe you a song."

"No. Don't let her on the stage," Kevin begged as she quickly rushed towards the microphone next to the DJ.

"Come on man, what's the worst that could happen?" Bruno asked, but Kevin was already rubbing his temples.

However, no one could do anything when Harmony got on stage, cutting off the music and drawing attention as she was so good at doing. The moment she giggled on stage, Bruno felt a moment of dread and a trickle of cold sweat on the back of his neck. Harmony, however, was a diva through and through, and was rather talented at being her worst self when the crowd's eye was looking at her. She surprised them, however, by breaking the ice. "Has anyone seen a black clutch?" She let out a sheepish laugh at the silence. Still, it was a friendly crowd, and no one had booed her off the stage so far, prompting her to let out a dramatic sigh. "No? Okay, then. I might as well sing little Kevin here, the song I promised him on our honeymoon. Does anyone even still remember our short-lived marriage?" There was a chorus of laughter, and she smiled, showing off those cute dimples on her cheeks. "I know I do."

They met her song with cheers, after all, she imagined it was funny since she was drunk off her ass and couldn't do her dance routine right. Her voice was the saving grace, since it never failed her or _fucking cheated on her in the condo she bought_.

"Now, I know, birthday boy over there is likely wondering, 'wow, look at that desirable piece of ass I cheated on and publicly shamed'." Harmony told herself that she had no hard feelings, and that she was just vindictive. "Now, I will say what you all are possibly thinking. I know I was. 'Wow, funny how famous he got from marrying me? What a coincidence, how his career took off once he divorced me.'" Harmony had the attention she wanted. Kevin Lockhart was furious, which worked for her since perhaps she had never gotten over it. Perhaps she told herself that she didn't love him and that his infidelity meant nothing. She was good at hiding the truth from herself. She fell hard and fast and jumped at the chance to marry him. "You got your fifteen minutes of fame, but you sure as hell didn't steal them from me."

It was awkward, and the whispering was stifling.

It wouldn't be a party if Harmony Grace didn't make a couple more enemies. She went to step off the stage, but thought better of it, turning on her heel to make one last announcement. "Kevin regularly takes Viagra. Have a good night everyone."

She didn't leave with complete grace, since her heel broke on the last step and she tumbled to the ground. She felt people taking her picture, likely every single one was worth much to the press. She didn't care. She didn't care about anything. That was when she knew the drugs were kicking her in the ass.

Everything faded the rest of the night, in and out, and she didn't remember how she was stumbling up the steps to her condo with her arm wrapped around someone's shoulder. She just remembered the smell of his cologne and his silk shirt in between her fingers when he asked for her keys. His voice was deep and raspy, but she couldn't place a face to it. She softly shook her head, attempting to hold up her hand to the black box near the doorknob. He got the idea and went to open it for her with a sigh. Her vision blacked out when it asked for her thumb print. 

She blinked, attempting to lift her hand to place her thumb on the pad, but she kept missing and it hit the wall. Everything was blurry, and she couldn't breathe straight. In fact, her breathing was too loud, and she felt him grab her by the wrist and guide her thumb to the pad. He held it there, and the authorization sounded out in a soft chime before asking for extra identification.

"Greetings Harmony Grace, please answer the following question: 'Dear sweet girl, don't forget...' Please finish the sentence," a computerized voice told her and Harmony blinked, feeling herself go in and out of consciousness.

"Live and be kind," she murmured, answering the security question. Someone was talking, but she felt her mind run away from her. Some time later, she felt her body fall against the cushions of her couch. The voice continued for a moment, but she was feeling lightheaded. The whispering was too intense, and she was too high, too drunk, and perhaps depressed.

She forced her eyes open, feeling her intense desire for water filter into her throat. It was so dry and it hurt to swallow. She attempted to stand, but felt her boots slip against something wet on her waxed mahogany floor. Her falling straight on her ass snapped sense into her mind and she cracked open her eyes wide to see her hands soaked in some liquid. It was too sticky, so it couldn't have been water, but it definitely didn't smell like vomit. She lifted her palms to her face, noticing the soft tan of her skin tinted by the obvious sign of blood.

She tried to blame it on all the narcotics and tequila, but that was hard since she was staring at the puddle beneath her feet. It was perhaps the best thing to sober her up, but it intoxicated her with something new: fear. She tried to scoot away when she saw the leg that rested limp just behind her couch. That was when someone stood up, towering over the body and proving that he must have been at least six feet tall.

Harmony's throat was too dry to scream, and her body was still too numb and stiff to run. Still, she forced herself to her feet and attempted a run towards the expensive vase that her manager picked out for her home while they were out shopping for clothes. She tossed it at the man, but she was too slow, and he ducked. She rushed away, tripping on the step of the ledge that rested uselessly towards the second half of her condo. She always tripped over it since it blended together with the ground floor. She heard the slow steps behind her, and she quickly stood up, rushing into her guest room, remembering to shut the door behind her with a sound lock just as a fist slammed against the door and forced her to take a fearful step back.

Her heart was beating loud when she searched her person for her cellphone. She found nothing, and she slowly remembered that she lost her clutch.

She placed her fist against her heart, the fear and adrenaline making it feel like she was having a heart attack. She was losing feeling, and she rushed to her window, attempting to force it open with no luck since she kept them all shut tightly and securely. She heard the guest bedroom's door slam open with a loud bang. The man walked in, standing tall, and she noticed the machete in his hand. Although, now that she was looking, having nowhere else to look or go with the masked person standing in front of the only useable exit.

They took a step forward, and her eyes darted around the bedroom, but there was nothing. Nothing but a bed and a lamp was on the side of the bed that she was not on. The killer knew it as well as she did. There was no running away from this one.

"Please, please, please," she whispered, and they were only moments away from her. Inches or feet, it all didn't matter. She felt the blade slide into her stomach, staining the Vera Wang dress in decadent red.

━༻❁༺━

"Or one opportunity  
To seize everything you ever wanted  
In one moment  
Would you capture it  
Or just let it slip?"

Harmony Grace heard her phone's alarm with a loud boom, resonating in her ears as she sat up with a heavy breath. She ran her fingers down her chest, in between her breasts. She was shaking, and not from the frigid winter air. She couldn't breathe. Her chest was heaving up and down and something felt so wrong, but physically she was just fine. She couldn't remember why she would even think this since she was in the height of physical perfection. She knew that all too well.

She plopped the bed sheets off, glancing down at her legs for any imperfections. Besides the need to get another tan, she saw nothing amiss. Her feet plopped against the wood floor and she felt the chill shoot through her skin. She knew she had bunched her hair up in a mess of curls the night before, making her sigh as she walked towards the bathroom to shower and straighten it. She gave her outfit a once over, her brows furrowing together as she couldn't remember going to bed in her clubbing dress. She shook her head and stripped it off, grabbing her makeup remover cream and turning on the shower. The moment she felt the scalding water hit against her skin, she felt her muscles relax.

She dropped her head, watching the water run down her legs and into the drain. She closed her eyes, relaxing in the steam, but she let out a squeak when she opened them and saw the vibrant blood mix into the water. When she blinked, it disappeared and morphed clear as ever. She ran her hand over her face as the ghost like pain lingered in her abdomen. There was something she was forgetting, but it was all too fuzzy to place.

She got ready in a daze, and everything was passing by so fast that she barely remembered how to pick up her phone when it rang. She answered it as if she were a zombie, working on muscle memory rather than knowledge.

"Where the hell are you?" Alexander Swindle said in a low hiss, and only at the noise did Harmony notice that she had a monster hangover.

"What? Late for what?" Harmony asked, rubbing her temples, forever grateful that her blinds were closed, so she didn't have to face the light of day again. Her manager let out a huff, and Harmony could imagine his jaw clenching and him glancing towards the press with such a dignified smile with those sweet lips of his. It was one thing that made her love kissing him, although his husband was unlikely to appreciate it.

" _What?_ " Alexander, or Alec as she loved to call him, let out a low hiss. His voice already swelling with annoyance. "Lets see, should I start with what you are late for or what you've blown off entirely? Photoshoot at 7 am, missed. The cover-shoot for your album at 9, missed. It took me weeks to book you. Now you're late for your fitting. You realize that will push everything back by an hour, unless you want to go to the VMAs in a trash bag cause at this point that's all we have time f-"

Harmony felt her heart pound so hard she feared it was about to break from her rib cages. She barely got out a breathy, "W-What?" cutting him off from further scolding her.

"You forgot?" Alec dragged it out, and there was a pause of him switching the phone on the other side of his cheek. This was a nervous habit he developed after working with her. You'd think since they were sleeping together, he'd ease up, but, if anything, that made him more neurotic. "God damn it Harm, where are you?"

"What day is it?" Harmony couldn't help but ask, especially since she vividly remembered already attending the VMAs.

"It's Friday. Jesus, Harmony, what did you take? You've almost never let it effect work. Don't tell me you've fallen back into taking-"

"Alec, shh," she shushed him, feeling a panic attack taking claim on her ribs, on her lungs, and it all hurt. She must have taken something rough last night because everything was too freaky.

"You 'kay 'mony?" Harmony knew he was talking, but the words were breaking up in her mind.

"I'm...fine," she knew that wasn't true, but she didn't need to worry him over something so bizarre as this intense bout of deja vu. "I'll be there in thirty. Stall them."

"All right," Alec told her, finding no point in scolding her any further.

He hung up, and she glanced at her face in her mirror just over her vanity. Everything was okay. "You're okay. You're beautiful. You're famous. You're fine."

She repeated her mantra as she toned and moisturized her face. Everything else passed in a daze, with her still wearing her favorite black dress she fell asleep in and with concealer to cover the dark circles that the tabloids would still see: 'Harmony Grace--shit faced and cray'. Even she couldn't tell how fast her heart was drumming as if something wasn't quite right.

By the time she was fitted and dressed for the VMAs, scolded by Alec, and scolded by her friends through text for ditching them at the party to hook up with some guy named _Chadwick_ ( _lame cornbread name by the wa_ y). She was posing for nearly a hundred flashing lights, and it exhausted her. Her body was ready to crash, as if she had too little sleep. She knew that at the very least was untrue.

There was a gut feeling, screaming at her, that everything happening seemed vaguely familiar. She seemed to remember what everyone wanted to tell her, and when she was hugged, greeted, prodded, and poked, she performed her hit song "Violet" that she practiced doing for the last couple months. The cheers made her feel alive, but they couldn't drown out how wrong everything was even if they made her smile.

It was the question after her song, spoken by some snooty tooty press bitch that wiped the smile straight off Harmony's face. "Are you heading to Kevin Lockhart's party then?"

She was used to personal questions, questions about her outfit, her hair, her weight, her face, her disproportionate tits (as if anyone was born with perfectly symmetrical breasts). Even when she starred in Four Fighters, her co-stars were all asked how they felt their characters were like themselves while all her questions were how she stayed fit to get into her costume. None of them poked at her irritation like a question about Kevin fucking Lockhart.

Still, Harmony smiled. "Oh, yes, I got the invite. Exciting."

"How do you feel knowing about Kevin and Alyssa's marriage rumors?" The press were like cockroaches, once they infested, they bred and mutated and made everything break down to an ugly mess.

 _I had not heard that._ Harmony was usually the first one to discover rumors, so it added flame to the fire that she had not known. It was even worse that out of anyone he could have chosen, he had to further _humiliate_ her by deciding to marry the bitch he was wheelbarrowing on her new bedspread that read out 'Mr and Mrs Lockhart'.

"I'm happy for them. The breakup was very mutual," Harmony said, saluting the woman with a sarcastic smile. She immediately opened her clutch to fish out her keys, already more than ready to leave even if she had to fucking drive herself.

Unfortunately, it got caught on the lace of her dress and the contents of her bag spilled out onto the floor. Of course, the press would not give her a single moment of privacy, deciding that even the contents of her clutch were picture worthy. She felt the blinding sting of flashing lights. Unfortunately for her, they also got the picture of her trusty flask before she could shove it into her bag in time.

The dress was beautiful, but she swore up and down that she hated it with an intensity that filled her chest.

She quickly ditched the press, the afterparty, everything, sent a text message to her driver who almost immediately pulled up the moment she was ready for him. She shoved her extra pair of keys into her clutch, deciding it would be easier if her driver was behind the wheel so she could get drunk in the back seat.

She felt the flashing lights on her back, catching her leaving early. It was all annoying and only when she got in the back seat and took a large chug of her tequila, her driver asked, "where to, Ms Grace?" She glanced to the side, noticing she got her dumb dress stuck in the door.

She was angry, tired, and just wanted tonight to be over. However, she couldn't allow Kevin Lockhart to have a beautiful birthday and announce some engagement as if he had a single romantic bone in his body. She gave the address to the party they had, _of course_ , not invited her to and drank the entire flask. She ripped her dress from the door with an angry huff, not caring when she heard the tear.

She slipped out of her heels and slipped on her party boots from where she left it underneath the seat. Since she ripped her dress, they contrasted one another well enough for Harmony to have pride when the car finally came to a halt, causing her to slam her head against the window. "Should I wait here then?"

"I'll get a cab. You can go home, Raph," she said, but everything faded away when she approached the much too familiar party house that gave her a sense of foreboding deja vu. She ran her hand over her eyes, cutting out that noise in her head, and approached the house. She got inside, much like last time-

No, not last time, because she had never been here before. She didn't remember the way the entrance arched, lined with flowers. She didn't remember the first song that played when she approached Kevin in greeting. She didn't remember any of that. She didn't remember the suit that he was wearing or the smell of the cologne she bought him in Paris, when they made love for hours and he told her he loved her. She didn't remember any of that.

 _None of it. None of it._ When approached with a problem, Harmony took up to more heavy drinking, but gave the same speech to ruin Kevin's plans of a romantic announcement to the audience and the woman who she would not like to see become his fiancée. That woman, Alyssa Cunnings, glared her down the entire time she pushed her lips against Kevin's neck and made him remember Paris. Paris was only hers. It was the only thing she and Alyssa did not share.

"That speech you made was petty and immature," Alyssa told her, grabbing onto Harmony's upper arm in a grip tight enough for her to seize Harmony's intoxicated attention. The diva put down her LA Prairie Cellular Luxe Lipstick, glancing toward the woman she hadn't even noticed entered the bathroom.

"Yes. Yes it was," Harmony said, slapping Alyssa's hand off her arm. "You know what else is petty? You sucking his dick on my grandmother's quilt. Classy move, you stupid twit, check for security cameras before you fuck a married man."

A look of lightly concealed guilt flashed over Alyssa's face for a moment, "Listen, I get it. If I were you, I'd be pretty pissed to, but seriously Harmony. Does it really surprise you? You knew him for two months."

That hurt, but Harmony didn't let it phase her visibly. She instead internalized it to be used against her later. "You think you're special?" Harmony grinned, closing the cap on her lipstick and putting it back into her bra, thankful that she still had that even though she lost her clutch. She just wanted to get the argument over with before she vomited all over the floor and Alyssa's pretty shoes. "I could have him anyway and anywhere I want. If you think he'll be faithful to _you_ , then why are you so worried to have him alone with _me_?"

"Get out."

"Love too."

The night turned black sometime after that, and when Harmony came to, in between her blurry vision, she was back in front of her door, approaching it with someone holding her up. The closer she got to the door, the more her heart pounded into her chest. She couldn't breathe. Everything seemed wrong. She tried to turn her head to look at who held her up, but her body wouldn't obey her. Something was wrong. That much she knew. She knew it. She knew it so intensely that she was practically breathing it out.

She tried to break free, perhaps to a neighbor, somewhere else, anywhere else. Her body wouldn't obey any signals and she held her thumb up to the pad with his black gloved hand to guide her. 

"Greetings Harmony Grace, please answer the following question: 'Dear sweet girl, don't forget...' Please finish the sentence," a computerized voice told her and Harmony blinked, feeling herself go in and out of consciousness.

"Live and be kind," she answered in a squeak. The question was randomized, so it never asked the same security question twice in a row. It was always an additional question, a new riddle, a number only she remembered, or just some memory test that she never failed, even when drunk. This time, however, it did, and that horrified her. She remembered something ominous just as she felt her body pulled and plopped onto her cushion couch.

It was like a dream. It was like a nightmare and she was in suspended animation, trying to sit up past the drugs and the alcohol. That was when she remembered that she shouldn't be high. This time, _this time_ , she hadn't smoked. It felt as if she had. Her head was in the clouds, and that made standing up so hard. Once again, she slipped on the puddle of blood before letting out a horrified scream when the person in black, equipped with a clear white mask except for the splatter, stood up straight.

Harmony scooted back, but her legs wouldn't obey, weak and wobbly. She barely managed to stand up and toss the vase at him. He ducked. He ducked just like last time.

The fear was bubbling down, and she ran, glancing at the ledge she knew she tripped over before, skipped it and went up the stairs. She felt the person grab her ankle as she tried to run. The knife was already slicing up her calf before she slammed her other boot, equipped with a sharp heel, into his neck. She barely felt the cut, too high off the drugs she felt in her system (but never willingingly took), the alcohol she had guzzled, and the adrenaline that kept her sober. She rushed into her bedroom, closing and locking the door. She quickly tried to drag her dresser in front of it, like she saw in the movies, but it didn't budge.

"Oh come on," she begged, her heart now in full throttle up her throat. She heard something. Her ringtone from her phone, signifying she had a text message. She looked around, spotting her lost clutch bag on her bed, she rushed to it, opening it and seeing she had some missed calls and text messages. She focused on the most recent one.

**diediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediedie**

Harmony felt someone behind her, odd because she had heard no one break the door. She felt the blade across her throat, slash and gone.

━༻❁༺━

"Or one opportunity  
To seize everything you ever wanted  
In one moment  
Would you capture it  
Or just let it slip?"

Harmony Grace heard her phone's alarm with a great boom, resonating in her ears as she sat up with a scream. She stayed inside that day, and she died in her tub like some dumb bitch in a slasher film.

━༻❁༺━

"Or one opportunity  
To seize everything you ever wanted  
In one moment  
Would you capture it  
Or just let it slip?"

Harmony Grace heard her phone's alarm with great boom, resonating in her ears as she sat up with a scream. She barricaded herself inside. She died.

━༻❁༺━

"Or one opportunity  
To seize everything you ever wanted  
In one moment  
Would you capture it  
Or just let it slip?"

Eminem, death, music, death, more death consumed Harmony Grace's life. Nothing changed, nothing mattered. She even tried being extra nice to everybody, hoping maybe if she could change her ways in a day, no one would want her dead. She tried and tried and tried. Nothing changed and everyday she woke up on Friday and did it all over again.

She tried not drinking, not smoking, not doing anything. She tried leaving town.

She had been stabbed, drowned, hanged, crushed, beaten.

Nothing worked. Nothing was different. She didn't even give a fuck if Kevin married Alyssa. She would marry them if it would free her or if she might wake up on a different day. She would give anything to change her alarm.

That was when she saw something extraordinary. It was different. It was somebody different. She nearly spilled her wine when she walked towards him, but the other guests whisked him away in the crowd as if he were a leaf in the wind before she could introduce herself to the man she had never seen before. He greeted people that she never seen be greeted by him, and she shoved Taylor Swift to the side, earning a scowl when she finally caught up to the man in the suit.

"Oh, look at that, it's Harmony Grace," he greeted in a cheery voice that made her want to cry.

"You're different," she said, pressing her hands against his suit. He raised a brow, glancing around at all the attention she had directed their way. Her hands were trembling, and his cheery expression disappeared.

"What is it? Is something weird going on?" The man immediately asked, and she felt her bottom lip tremble. She wanted to stay, to tell him everything, but she had also never cried in front of a soul since she was fifteen and wouldn't start doing so in front of a room filled more star power to light up the sky. She pushed past him, heading towards one of the empty rooms connected to the party room. She felt for certain that she probably died in this room before too, and just when she was about to freak out she noticed the bright blue box in the back.

Her tears dried up at the sight of yet another unfamiliar object that was definitely not in this room when someone butchered her up against the wall. The door opened from behind her, and she let out a scream, turning around as if to defend herself. It was just the mystery man and the mystery blue box.

"Who are you?" Harmony asked. "You've never been here the other times."

"I'm a man who knows when someone is scared out of their mind," he whispered, and his voice was so comforting. Her muscles nearly relaxed at the soothing sound of his voice. "What's happened?" _Then again,_ Harmony thought with a frown, _Ted Bundy was handsome too._

"I am scared," she told him, her brows furrowed. "It's absurd. You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me," he promised her.

"I don't even know your name," she said, trying to put it off. She didn't want to explain something without evidence and ruin the one unfamiliar man in her monotonous life. She told anybody and everybody once before and no one could help her. No one believed her.

"I'm a certified helper," he said, holding up a piece of paper towards her face.

"It's blank," she told him.

"Oh," he glanced down at it, but his eyes snapped back towards hers without a miss step. "You must be brilliant."

Something about the way he said it filled her with an old pride she hadn't felt since the first 20 deaths. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," he answered.

"Doctor who?" Her question made him smile.

"Just the Doctor," he answered, and she furrowed her brows. He was weird, but her gut instincts were begging for a bit of weird. Normal couldn't help her, but peculiar just might.

"You won't laugh?"

"Never," he promised, and she believed him.

"I've lived this day over 400 times," she told him, and she honestly might have truly lost count by now. "This same Friday, the 25th 2017. It's always the same. I wake up. I die. I wake. I die."

All signs of his smile was replaced with furrowed brows.

"Something is haunting me. Doctor, I don't," she pressed her fingers against her face, rubbing her hand down.

"What?" Harmony had his full attention, but all she wanted was sleep.

"I've shot him. I've stabbed him. He won't quit," she said, her shoulders shaking. By now, she might have cried.

"What about today is different?" The Doctor's question was met with her blank expression.

"As far as I can tell, you are," she said in a whisper. "You believe me?"

"Of course," he answered without missing a beat. "It has to be something besides me. You did something different. You have to remember. You have to think."

"Everything is the same. Same dress. Same earrings. I wake up, I get dressed, head here, rinse and repeat," she told him, but slowly her brows furrowed. "I don't even know what's real anymore."

"I will protect you."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep, Doctor," she said, her small forming seeming to shrink before him and he wondered if she was even ready for what he was about to show her.

"Follow me. I want to show you something," he told her and she blinked, watching as he rushed to the blue box at the end of the room. The sight of it reminded her of Narnia, that small wardrobe that fit a world inside of it. That was a foolish question, but she felt as if she had seen it all before.

He opened the doors, and she saw the inside, this enormous ship and this great big world. It was only moments away. She took a hesitant step forward, but she knew her time was limited each day, so she didn't hesitate for long. She rushed forward, entering the blue box after the mysterious stranger.

"What is this?" Harmony was exhausted, having not seen much of anything new in what felt like a year. Actually, it had been a year. A year of dying. A year of the same _goddamned thing._ Sometimes she thought she'd one day just shut down, curl up into herself, stare at the ceiling until the masked entity came for her. It was easier to imagine it as an entity rather than a person. It was easier because it didn't matter. If she found out it was a friend she didn't think she could go on any longer.

"This is the TARDIS. You didn't say the line," the Doctor seemed disappointed by her reaction, but really she was stunned into silence. She felt the tears fall from her eyes with no control. She couldn't very well breathe. "Hey, what's wrong?" The Doctor rushed to her side, obviously not knowing how to react to the crying girl in his care. She didn't care that he was uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she fell to her knees, her body trembling. She felt the urge to break in half.

"How long has this loop been going on?" The Doctor knelt down next to her, pressing his hands against her cheeks so she was forced to look at him. "Exact time period."

"I don't know anymore," she reiterated, too exhausted to notice she felt the need to sleep. "I tried to keep track, but the days run together when you have no way of keeping score. Nothing I do matters because it resets in the end. Tomorrow never comes."

The Doctor rushed to stand up, scanning her over with some kind of pen. He met her confused yet blank stare with a slight smile. "It's a sonic screwdriver."

"That looks nothing like a screwdriver," she murmured, watching him examine the device, pressing it against his ear and looking down at her as if it amazed him. "What? Do I have some loose screw on me or do you need to assemble a dresser?"

His lips quirked up slightly but he didn't answer as he rushed to the TARDIS console and inputted the data into it. He plugged in his device as if it were an USB, and this caused her to stand, walking over to him as if he already had an answer to every question she had in over a year of death.

"What's wrong with me?" Harmony's question was met with the Doctor's glance her way.

"I'm not sure what's doing this, but this kind of time loop isn't unheard of. My people used to call them the Dan'dadew. It's caused by a tear in the fabric of reality, but it is inside the core of the person. This causes a loop."

"Is there a way to stop it?" Harmony Grace wanted it to be over. "I don't care about some loop. I want this to be over."

The Doctor gave her a look that said it all. "I can't stop it. It is set around this day. Usually, you wouldn't even remember it happening. Hardly ever is it fetal."

"I guess I'm just lucky then," she felt her last hope slipping away. She couldn't stand it anymore.

"I don't know how to stop it," he admitted once again, and he looked ashamed enough about his confession.

"So I'm doomed?" Harmony felt a loss for words. "What about your people? Could they help me?"

"My people..." The Doctor had this look of agony that someone like Harmony could pick up on, considering she had been acting all her life and could see the cues in body language. In fact, despite a popular belief that she was lazy, she was one of the few actors who spent much of her time in acting school. "My people couldn't help."

"Why?" Harmony understood that he wanted to dodge the issue, but if she was going to spend the rest of eternity stuck in a death loop, then she at least wanted to know why he wasn't doing everything to help her.

"Because they don't exist anymore," he answered. "I don't know how to break it. The only thing I can offer you is the chance to run away."

"Run...away?" Harmony felt herself drawn closer, taking in every detail he offered her.

"The TARDIS is a ship. I can go anywhere in the universe. With some difficulty, I can take you away from this loop. However, you wouldn't be able to come back otherwise you'd be trapped again. I wouldn't even be able to take you within 20 years of this time period," he gave her a sympathetic smile. "It's also a time machine."

"You're unloading a lot on me right now."

"Basically, I can drop you off in a new time and a fresh place. You can try to live your life there."

"This isn't happening," Harmony muttered, already distraught. She had loved her life. Perhaps she had few complaints, but she had friends, she had her sister. She had a life.

"Second option."

"Please tell me it's better than the first."

The Doctor gave her a slight smile, running his hands over the console. "You could come with me. Anywhere in time and space. It could be a welcome distraction, and should we come across anything that could help you go home, you can at least have some hope at that."

Harmony felt her insides quake. "So, basically, run away for now and come back later."

"Yeah, basically."

She felt a smile run across her face. For the first time in over a year, she had hope. She held out her hand, and he placed his palm into hers.

"Welcome aboard, Harmony Grace."

The moment his hand touched hers, however, he had this look in his eyes that told her he wasn't telling her nearly everything.


End file.
